Facing The Past
by x-Kim0x
Summary: My take on the Doctor and Rose coming to terms with the events of Bad Wolf Bay.


**Disclaimer: I own nothing. **

**Please review.**

"Rose?" the Doctor urged desperately, charging out of his TARDIS in her wake.

Picking up her pace, Rose began to sprint away from the Doctor, leaving him with a bemused, confused and lost expression covering the entirety of his pale complexion.

He simply had to get his Rose to open up to him. The most courageous, amusing and comforting companion that he had ever experienced the pleasure of travelling through time and space accompanied by; he would lose her against his wishes once again if she did not admit her true feelings. She had to; she'd confided in him that she'd loved him once, or was that merely and directly triggered by the fact that they'd had an immensely short two minutes remaining in which they could talk to each other, comfort each other, pledge forever to each other; in their minds as it may? There was Donna; she'd vowed to find him a second time, daringly adopting an undercover operation within Adipose Industries, courageously placing her trust in him completely as the time lord had once again; much to his peril, embarrassment and faint amusement; been proved wrong – Miss Foster had indeed possessed a similarly enough, if not identically functioning, sonic device; a sonic pen. Very sleek, as the Doctor had found himself compelled to conclude.

Snapping himself from the deepening thoughts with regard to relatively recent events hurriedly, abruptly and swiftly, the Doctor found himself calling out desperately for a second time in the past minute. "ROSE?!"

He needed to make her understand; he had to. His life depended upon it, almost. Donna had been nothing but loyal to him in their quite brief period of travelling together, but she was not Rose Tyler; his Rose. The Rose he craved, needed, loved. Rose had met him when he'd been almost at his lowest; the sole lower point being directly in the aftermath of the Time War. That war which he'd been forced to resolve, to conclude, to believe; had scarred, damaged and stained his miserable existence. With Rose bounding at his side every second, his sombre attitude; outlook on life had been alleviated gradually; slightly, and this change within his being had been more than welcome. Having become acquainted with the Doctor at this point in time, Rose Tyler was aware of the suffering, the torture, the pain that the war had inflicted upon him, burning its harrowing sequence of events onto his then fragile mind. With her he'd weakly begun on the road to recovery, not dissimilar to a small child who had found themselves the unfortunate victim of abuse, or had simply fallen from their bicycle, or suddenly lost a relatively close friend. With Rose, understanding would not come at the epic price of having to relive the truly harrowing specific details of the grim, murky, shadowed events once again, when he'd already experienced them a plentiful number of times; in the form of a tape replaying, echoing, burning away in his aching mind; as Gallifrey had burned to rocks and dust years previously. Now however, his mind ached for her. His Rose Tyler.

"Leave me alone; this isn't the time to discuss this!" Rose shrieked, running off further into the distance, ever further from the Doctor's reach.

The Doctor sighed heavily, trailing Rose's path quickly. "When then, when I'm about to regenerate the next time?!" He bellowed across the darkened street, devoid of life since the Daleks had summoned every human possible. The only light present was that continuously being emitted by those few, almost anomalous stars that remained, while every other had fallen victim to the approaching darkness. "I'll call you when that happens then; that's assuming there's a sufficient gap between universes when the occasion arises!" He seethed, nearing the point at which he considered he would drown in the inescapable knowledge that Rose would make a return to the parallel universe in question, this time through free will; not in the unfortunate turn of events while defending a rapidly weakening planet Earth against the most harrowing of monsters.

Rose did not spin on her heel in order to allow her gaze to lock with that of the Doctor, and did not approach the time lord so that their hands could become interlocked once again; resembling the inseparable, formidable and legendary double act that they had once joined together to establish. "Of course not!" She reasoned with a shockingly bitter screech; a shadow of her former self in that moment.

"Talk to me," the Doctor pleaded meekly, meeting her own defiant tones with his own seemingly defenceless ones.

"I can't!" Was the simple, brief and almost hostile response received.

The Doctor began to sprint the length of the disaster ridden concrete at the most swift pace of which his now trembling legs were capable. Him, trembling; that's what Rose Tyler had done to him, and he needed her; desired her companionship so very badly. "Why?" He voiced gently, puzzled, confused, a feeling of vulnerability pulsing through his entire being, as if a firework had exploded within him and divested all of the many layers which he had been forced to build up in a desperate attempt to conceal his emotions from those people and events which could pain him so extensively.

"Because I can't, alright!" His former companion rasped in the distance, becoming almost breathless in a silent plea to be spared the hurt, misery and unadulterated joy of facing him once again.

"Rose, I really love you!" He mustered from the bottom of his hearts, whether it be directly contradictory of a previous vow to himself or not. Rose Tyler really was all that mattered to him in the universe. His vocal cords trembled as he neared the conclusion of his utterly heartfelt statement, coinciding with the point at which his delicate, shaking, colour deprived palm met with her own faltering shoulder. "You might be able to convince yourself that Bad Wolf Bay never happened, but I can't, and I won't. Whatever happens, I'll love you with all of both of my hearts until the end of my lives," he told her honestly, gently and sincerely, as he attempted to turn her so that she would be left with no option but to look him directly in the eyes.

Her eyes glistened with fresh, heartfelt tears as she spun around weakly, and, as it seemed, not entirely against her will; her better judgement. She quivered for a second, and in that moment, everything that Rose had strived for in order to protect her fragile emotions from the indescribable heartache and pain of losing him again; fell away.

"I meant it too," she stammered, quivering lightly with the intensity of her sincere revelation. "I love you," she uttered, the oceans of tears which had welled inside of her body beginning to cascade over her beautiful cheeks as the pair fell into a deep, longed for and loving embrace, oblivious to all around them.


End file.
